Australia needs a sugar tax, as part of a broader national nutrition policy, to combat the obesity crisis. And the sugar industry is getting in the way.
The sugar industry has employed various tactics to influence health policy in its favour.
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Tonight, Four Corners looks at the tactics Big Sugar has used to influence health policy. Here’s our pick of five analysis pieces that will get you informed on the issue before the program airs.
A Malawian woman receives a bednet to protect her and her child from mosquitoes that spread malaria.
MSF/ Wilfred Masebo
Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney e Rosalie Viney, University of Technology Sydney
Public hospitals in Australia are owned and operated by state (and territory) governments. So why does the Commonwealth government attract blame for lack of hospital funding?
Government price controls start with good intentions but often result in unintended consequences.
AAP/David Crosling
We are paying more for our health insurance because we are using it more. No crude, short-term measures to restrict premium growth will deal with this fact.
The rate of complications varies markedly between hospitals.
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The rapid growth of genetic testing and data-gathering could revolutionize health and medicine if governments work to protect people against privacy and societal risks.
As cities in developing countries - like Lagos in Nigeria, pictured here - grow, so do obesity risks.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Governments must understand that the factors making cities convenient and productive also make their residents prone to obesity. They must confront this challenge with intelligent, focused policies.
Information on patients’ experiences with their hospital care is often not reported back to public hospitals at unit or ward level.
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One would think governments would do all they could to ensure palliative care is available to all who need it. This is not the case in Australia today.
Australia has more doctors per population than most comparable countries, yet many living in rural and remote areas don’t receive the care they need. Changing the way we train doctors will fix this.
A byproduct of Australia’s fractured federalism is that both the Commonwealth and state governments fund public hospitals.
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Leaked documents of a secret ‘taskforce’ to reform public hospital funding reveal some controversial proposals. So how are hospitals funded and why might this need changing?
Why have successive federal governments not regulated junk food marketing to control obesity? The reasons aren’t as obvious as you might think.
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No wonder obesity is a tough public health issue for governments to deal with. Our research has uncovered a range of barriers to tackling it, some more obvious than others.
Mental health remains chronically underfunded.
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Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne